In the ally
by nuttypeanutbutter
Summary: When Charlie Weasley comes to stay with the twins he learns about the strange running's of Diagon ally and the beautiful girl at the heart of it. Non canon timeline/ no voldemort


The day Charlie decided to visit the twins at the shop was not a good one for them.

In the night as, the twins slept soundly above the shop the door to the stock room had been busted open and many boxes of stock stolen, and a few windows smashed.

When Charlie arrived in diagon ally he was confused at the small crowd outside the twin's shop, in the summer that was a common sight, but the schools had gone back nearly two weeks ago. He found the twins inside the shop clearing up what they could with them was a young boy who looked as if he should still be in Hogwarts "Howards gonna wanna 'ave a word" the boy told the twins

Charlie realised that the boy was a local he was what they called an ally cat, the twins had told him about the local community and many of the families there forwent sending their children to Hogwarts as they had large families of 10 or more children and couldn't afford to send them so these kids often wandered the ally either finding odd jobs or pick pocketing.

Apparently, some of the children did attend Hogwarts but often dropped out around 4th or 5th year as they often had to help with the family business.

When the crowd had gone Charlie finally got to speak to the twins

"alright you two?" Charlie asked as they sat down to finally have a cup of tea

"we've been better Charles." One said he was pretty sure it was Fred as he often called him Fredrick to wind him up

"I see that, did they get much?" he asked dreading the answer as the twins made good money, but he knew that the months in-between summer and winter could be slow, and he didn't know if the shop could take a big loss.

"Dunno yet, haven't done a stock check yet." Fred shrugged

"we'll have to do it before we go speak to Howard, will probably want to know how bad it was" George reminded his twin

"Howard will want to cover the cost of the windows and the stock you know this."

This didn't sound like a bad thing to Charlie, but he was confused on why this Howard person would help the twins out that much

"what is Howard the landlord or something?" he asked still confused

The twins glanced at each then in sync shrugged "not really." They both said

"what do you mean not really?" that had cleared up nothing

"well you see she's not the landlord-"

"we own this building thanks to her- "

"but she runs everything around here- "

"good- "

"and Bad."

"so, Howard's some woman who owns things round her?" Charlie asked still very confused

"Sort of, you can come meet her with us later if you want?"

For the rest of the afternoon they chatted about all the things that have happened in-between his last visit, Charlie told them all about the struggles that the reservation and how he thinks he's going to have to start job hunting soon. The twins in turn told him about an advent calendar they were planning with some prank sweets and some nice ones it was a partnership with sugarplums it was expected to do very well. Charlie could not have been any prouder of his brothers they had done so well for themselves and they seemed so happy.

Charlie spent a couple of hours helping the twins do a stock count luckily what with the back to school rush just over there was not much stock left a few boxes of seasonal stuff and a few boxes of larger products that they only shave a few on the shelves due to the size, that unfortunately is where they would make their biggest lost with this brake in.

After their afternoon of heavy box moving they had decided a pub dinner is just what was in order and apparently this is where they would see this Howard, the leaky cauldron was only a few doors away and by the sounds of it the twins ate there for most meals, Charlie made a mental note to teach them a few easy meals that he had learned over the years and he would be staying with them for a while and he didn't fancy the leaky's food for every meal. The leaky was extremely busy for a week night Charlie thought, there seemed to be a large rowdy group dominating a corner of the pub, they had pushed as many tables as they could get their hands on together and seemed to be using anything they could to sit on, a few pretty girls had even perched themselves on the counter.

They managed to find a table in the opposite corner of the pub the noise had died down a little, but they could still hear the crowd. Charlies assumption had been correct as they even knew what the soup of the day was, curried parsnip, and had three bowels sent over as a starter before they had even sat down.

"So, where's this Howard then?" Charlie asked as the bar maid sat down three delicious smelling bowels of soup down in front of them. One of the twins nodded towards the large crowd Charlie turned to see if he could see the woman who was named Howard, while there were a few women amongst the group, but Charlie really couldn't guess which one it would be as the woman didn't look much older than his 26.

After an amazing three course pub dinner Charlie went up to the bar to order a couple fire whiskeys to toast to him moving in with the twins for the winter, as he waited he caught the eye of one of the blonde girls who was perched on the bar, she seemed to whisper something to the girl who was sitting in-between them and the other girl smiled and hopped down off the bar and went and sat on the lap of one of the men at the table. The blonde girl slid along the bar still sitting upon it until she came up to Charlie

"Well hello there." Charlie grinned at the girl turning a bit of charm on as she was quite pretty

"I've never seen you in here," She told him cocking her head to the side "and I make a point of knowing everyone in the ally."

"you'll know my brothers then." He said turning around nodding at the twins who were staring wide eyed at Charlie he turned back to the girl who smiled and waved at the twins.

"Yes, I know Fred and George, but what is your name honey?" she lent forward with a smile

"Charlie and yours beautiful?" she reached beside her and took a swig of the mead she had been drinking

"Before you laugh, I was born on the first day of fall." She said with an eye-roll, Charlie grinned and nodded

"I promise I wont laugh." He said putting his hands up, she grinned back at him

"it's autumn."

Charlie burst out laughing and she giggled along with him but slapped his arm a few times telling him to stop laughing

"I'm sorry it's just it's a bit un-original isn't it." He giggled, she nodded as she sipped more of her mead, it wasn't until then had he realised he still hadn't ordered the fire whiskeys he had come over for,

"the twins are going to kill me, I've been stood here talking to a pretty girl while they are dying of thirst." Charlie said with an eyeroll

Autumn waved a hand as she downed the rest of her mead "come sit with us! Its drinks all night."

Charlie wasn't one to turn down sitting with a pretty girl and he knew the twins wouldn't turn down the offer, so he turned to the twins who were still starting at him like he had grown three heads and beckoned them over

"Three Fire whiskeys and another mead for me Grace! Oh, and another few ales for the table!" Autumn called to the bar maid who smiled and nodded at her "oi make some room." She shouted to the loud table in front of her as she nudged the back of the chair in front of her.

Quickly the group moved allowing room for the four of them, Autumn hopped down from the bar and dragged Charlie into the seat next to her. The twins sat down gingerly Charlie couldn't figure out what was wrong with them.

"Good thing you're here I was going to pop round later to see how you are doing." Autumn told the twins

"yeah sorry about not coming down to see you earlier we had to do a stock take, to see what was missing." George explained, Autumn waved a hand dismissing the apology

"nah I know you was busy, I've had a word round seeing if anyone saw anything, its all-in hand," She reassured them, the twins looked relieved "but we need to talk cost tomorrow, Ill send a window fitter tomorrow first thing to repair those windows and I imagine you know what's missing invoice me for the price and I'll let you know if I recover anything."

The twins started to protest, and Autumn shut them down with a look, the bar maid grace had just brought over the drinks, so Fred raised a glass to autumn

"thank you then Howard." He toasted,

Charlie choked on his fire whiskey and Autumn giggled sending him a sympathetic look "whiskey too strong?" and patted his back slightly he shook his head slowly gaining his breath back

"You're this Howard everyone keeps talking about?" he asked eyebrows raised

"Autumn Howard," she shrugged "I've told these two to stop calling me Howard though, only some of the ally elders still call me Howard."

"So, what do you actually do then? the twins where a little vague." The twins shot him a look as they hid behind their drinks

"Me?" she grinned "I just run the junk shop around the corner, along with a few other bits on the side." She didn't elaborate Charlie felt like he couldn't ask any further.

The evening flashed by quickly the three brothers drank and shared stories with autumn and a few of her friends. By the time Charlie looked up it was gone three in the morning and the rest of the pub was empty apart from him, the twins, autumn and a boy about Ron's age called Henry "Christ look at the time." Charlie slurred until then not realising how drunk he truly was, the twins where in a worst state both propping each other up, he wasn't sure how easy it would be to get the twins home and up the shop stairs

"urg we've got to meet Thorpe in two hours," Autumn moaned to Henry who looked a little worse for wear, he nodded and made to stand up but stumbled catching himself on the table autumn giggled and rolled her eyes "Henry help Charlie take the twins home and get some sleep I'll deal with Thorpe and Ill see you at lunch."

With that Autumn turned to the bar where Tom the owner of the leaky stood he has swapped with his young bar maid to shut up shop after them, she pulled a pouch of coins from her boot and without counting them placed the pouch on the bar nodding at Tom.

Charlie and Henry helped the twins up to the shop with autumn who waited outside having a smoke. As he went to lock the shop door after Henry had left, he watched out the door as Autumn finished her fag making it disappear with a click of her slender fingers and with a swish of her blonde hair her and Henry were gone, leaving the street empty and quiet.


End file.
